King of Mask Singer

King of Mask Singer

Mystery Music Show: King of Mask Singer (‹The template Korean is being considered for merging.› Hangul: 미스터리 음악쇼 복면가왕; RR: Miseuteori Eumaksyo Bokmyeon-gawang) is a South Korean singing competition program presented by Kim Sung-joo, with introductions by voice actor Lee Won-joon (ko). It airs on MBC on Sunday at 16:50, starting from April 5, 2015 as a part of MBC’s Sunday Night programming block, along with Real Men, replacing Animals.

Format

Each competition lasts for two episodes, with the singers competing one-on-one in three elimination rounds. They are given elaborate masks to wear in order to conceal their identity, thus removing factors such as popularity, career and age that could lead to prejudiced voting. In the first round, both contestants sing the same song, while in the second and third round they each sing a solo song. The winners of each pair are selected by the audience and panel of judges through instant live votes. The identities of the singers are not revealed until they have been eliminated.The winner of the third round challenges the previous competition’s Mask King, and is either eliminated or becomes the new Mask King.Ha Hyun-woo (ko) of Guckkasten (“Music Captain of Our Local”) has nine consecutive wins, which is the highest number of wins achieved by any contestant.

Due to great interest and demand, the show released a special album consisting of a selection of studio recordings by the competitors. Despite great popularity, Luna’s performances were not included, as her company SM Entertainment reportedly had other plans.